[sdiy] For you FM synthesis fans

[Neil Johnson]

Roman Sowa wrote:
> We are able, and alwas have been, but who would want to use it? Kawai K5000
> wasn't that succesfull IIRC.

Indeed it wasn't at the time.  It seems to be having a bit if a retro
resurgence these days.  I bought one new years ago when EMIS were
selling them off cheap (it re-triggered my interest in additive
synthesis from my second degree's design project).  Sold it about 8
years ago as it just wasn't being used that much (great keyboard
action, lousy OS).

It does have a powerful synthesis engine - up to 128 harmonics, and
each one has its own envelope generator.

The other sound generating engine in it was a PCM sample-based sound
engine, which is/was used all over the presets.

But, the feature that really made it shine was the formant filter
bank.  That smoothed out the roughness of the additive engine, and
added a degree of character to the sound.  Coupled with lots of front
panel control knobs, a decent arpeggiator, and digital oscillators
that could be pushed into screamin' aliasing, it could be a fun
instrument to play.  But not specifically because of the additive
engine.

Neil
--
http://www.njohnson.co.uk